An Art-Making Workshop for Middle School Kids by Linda Camardo 2004-2005 Art With Kids Award Winner

Lesson plan

Romare Bearden

Romare Bearden was born in Mecklenburg County, North Carolina where he spent much of his youth. His family later moved North and Romare spent his time living with his grandmother in Pittsburgh and his family in Harlem. He developed early interests in both music and the visual arts. He is noted as one of the premiere American artists of the 20th century as his art depicts personal memories and the African-American experience.

Focus

Artists conceptualize cultural, historical, social, and personal experiences in their work. We will focus on Romare Bearden’s life, the development of his collage style, the influences of his life in North Carolina, Pittsburgh, and Harlem and the history of the Harlem Renaissance and jazz as they are represented in his art. Bearden believed that both art and jazz music relied heavily upon improvisation and he used improvisation to combine collage materials in his artwork.

Figure 1.Student Work, The Philadelphia Skyline View From a Crib: Good night, boungys.

Goals/Objectives

Students will:

learn about the life and works of African-American artist, Romare Bearden

identify symbols and connections between Bearden’s life and love of jazz and their representation in his art

learn method of creation of collage with emphasis on use of layers, textures, surfaces

learn about the selection of collages materials

make decisions about which materials best express personal experience, cultural or historical depiction

We begin this workshop with an introduction to the life and works of Romare Bearden. We emphasize the importance of memories depicted in Bearden’s art from those of Mecklenburg County, most clearly of the trains journeying north, pepper jelly and his great-grandmother’s garden to those of the smoke stacks of Pittsburgh to the cityscapes and jazz influences of Harlem. We view slides, prints, and photographs of Bearden’s collages that incorporate these memories as symbols in his work.

Figure 13. Student Busy at Work:Final application of color details in The Fall

To brainstorm ideas for student work, we begin to recall vivid memories of our own childhood. Students write a 'memory page' about a specific moment in time, one that captures rich, visual memories. These informal writings may be in paragraph or simple list form to initiate visual context for the collage work.

Figure 14. Student Work, The Fall: So Many Mixed Emotions

Students next sketch on newsprint a draft idea for collage, keeping in mind interesting composition, a fractured, cubist motif, and the utilization of different collage pieces. Not much detail is planned yet this is just the groundwork.

Next we prepare and collect collage materials. Monoprints of varying textures and patterns are to be created in class and shared among students. Collage materials range from wallpaper, newspaper text, tissue paper, handmade and specialty papers, family photographs that have been cut and re-assembled, magazine cutouts, combinations of drawn, painted or oil pastel sections and monoprints. Collage papers are both torn and cut to vary the edges.

Students place collage pieces on canvas surface. Much experimentation takes place: arranging, re-arranging of pieces, re-working, solving composition problems, and incorporating interesting negative space. Once they are satisfied with the development, students glue pieces on canvas with great care and craftsmanship. This is the most wonderful part of all, the student’s memory comes to life, as the artwork unfolds in Bearden style. The results are amazing!

Figure 17. Student Work, Mihi Nomen Est: Their Names Will Never Be Known

Bibliography

The Art of Romare Bearden: A Resource for Teachers, The National Gallery of Art, 2003

A Collage of Memories An Art With Kids Art Making Workshop based on the Art of Romare Bearden (1911–1988)

Romare Bearden is one of the most exciting American artists of the 20th Century. He worked mostly from his memories and his personal experiences. He lived in Mecklenburg, North Carolina, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania and in Harlem, New York as he was growing up and had vivid recollections of those times and the things he had seen.

Jacob Lawrence is known today as a storyteller artist. He is known for his many series of paintings about African-American history featuring the stories of people such Harriet Tubman, the abolitionist John Brown and Touissant L'Ouverture. As well as documenting history, his many paintings fulfill his desire to create long-lasting portraits of his own life, the people around him and Harlem, the community where he grew up.

Elizabeth Catlett was an African-American sculptor and master printmaker whose work is both social and political in nature. Born in 1915 she created sculptures and prints with a recurring "female" and "mother and child" theme. These have become her trademark. She felt the role of women in society and the relationships between a mother and her child are very important and liked to explore these through her work.

Aaron Douglas is known for his large murals, which depict scenes from African and African-American life. In his 1934 series Aspects of the Negro he created four murals on canvas highlighting African life and culture; images of slavery and emancipation in the United States; life for African Americans in the Southern states and finally the frustrations of African Americans after the Great Depression of 1929.

An art-making workshop designed for students Grades 3-6, based on The Domino Players, (1943) by Horace Pippin (1888-1946)

Objectives:

to engage and enthuse the students, by bringing to life one of Horace Pippin’s best- known paintings

to increase the students’ powers of observation and practice art skills and techniques

to emulate Pippin's self-taught philosophy of "painting things exactly as I see them" and encourage the students to have confidence in creating their own personal style

Props and Materials for the Living Painting:

large painted backdrop of The Domino Players(9’x7’)

a rocking chair

2 wooden chairs

2 stools

a large table

costumes (i.e. long skirts, spotted shirt, cloth caps etc.)

oil lamp

alarm clock

patchwork quilt

needle

thread

scissors

red, black and gray swatches of fabric

Tempera paint: red, black, white, brown, yellow, blue, green

paintbrushes of assorted sizes

large sheets white drawing paper

large poster of The Domino Players

Activity

An area of the classroom to be set up to imitate the setting of Pippin's The Domino Players. Time suggested at least 1 hour, ideally 2-3 hours.

In contrast to the slide presentation segment of this program, this "hands-on" activity will serve as a positive contrast and offer the class the opportunity for physical expression.

Four students will be selected (3 girls and 1 boy) to imitate Pippin's characters in the piece. Students will dress as the characters and assume the poses of the people in the painting.

When the 'actors' have taken their places, the class will paint what they see, attempting to utilize the style and techniques employed by Pippin himself, i.e. drawing with strong, bold black outlines and whole areas of color. They will be encouraged to observe and draw the distinct shapes, patterns and contrasts of the piece.

Active participation of students makes learning an enjoyable and concrete experience. Pippin was a self-taught painter and students will be encouraged to work as Pippin did, i.e. painting as they see it and thereby developing their own personal style.

At some stage in the proceedings allow the students to imitate Pippin's painting technique of supporting his right arm with his left hand, (he sustained an bad injury to his shoulder during WW1.) They will better understand how committed he must have been as an artist in order to complete all his work in this way and enjoy the challenge !!

If photographs can be taken throughout the workshop they will serve as an exciting stimulus, particularly if taken with a digital camera, put onto a computer and shown to students at the end of the workshop. Children love to see themselves at work and since there are live models to work from it is an excellent opportunity to engage the enthusiasm of models and painters alike.

Anyone Can Fly Foundation

Englewood, NJ

The mission of the Anyone Can Fly Foundation is to expand the art establishment's canon to include artists of the African Diaspora and to introduce the Great Masters of African American Art and their art traditions to children and adult audiences. The Foundation is a 501(c)(3) charitable organization supported by people devoted to the visual arts.